Night at the Fights

Who could be mad at this face? (Photo taken by me on Opening Day this year)

I’d like to thank Kevin Gregg for taking my mind off of sadder situations and helping to blow up my Toeing the Rubber email accounts.  It would be fun to pick the messages I received apart but it is even more fun to just go straight to the source.

Let Mr. Gregg have the floor:

“They are going to whine and complain about it because they think they are better than everybody else. But no, we have just as much right to pitch inside as they do. Everybody’s frustrated. It’s part of the game.”

“You get tired of getting your butt kicked every night when you come in here. I’m going to stick up for what’s ours and try to get the plate back. I think you showed them that we are not backing down. We are not scared of them and their $180-million payroll. We don’t care. We are here to play the game. We have just as much right to play the game here.”

“It is 3-0, they are up seven, and I think there are some ethics to this game and guidelines that you have to stay within. Run. You hit a lazy fly ball, you have to run the bases. And apparently, he didn’t like me telling him that stuff and he came out there. If he thinks there’s something wrong with me saying that, then he has other things he has to check out in this game.”

But wait!  Nick Markakis wants in on this too!

“I like the guy, I like Ortiz, I respect the way he plays the game but I think it was a little bush league, bottom of the eighth, two outs, up by six, swinging 3-0. I don’t think we were hitting anybody intentionally there. But if it’s got to come down to that, it’s got to come down to it.

We’re in it as a team. He knows how to play the game. I think he’s going to look back on it and realize that he screwed up there but what happened, happened and it’s over.”

Kevin Gregg and the Baltimore Orioles…good for what ails you.

I’m feeling a little frisky this morning, so let me try to tackle this.

Whine and complain, everyone is frustrated: Three fastballs right at Papi.  YOUR team is frustrated because you are getting your butts kicked and headed for your fifth consecutive loss, having only won one out of your last ten games before this one.  It was so obvious what you were doing, that the umpires warned both benches without Papi having been hit.  You were not pitching inside, you were trying to hit David Ortiz because your team is lousy and you got called on it.

Tired of getting butt kicked, not scared of the payroll, not backing down: This entire quote reads like the younger sibling whining that the older sibling gets to do more and IT ISN”T FAIR!  Wah, wah, wah, Mr. Gregg.

You have to run the bases: I watched this game as it was happening and because I didn’t expect to be able to watch the game, I dvr’d it as well.  NESN showed the replay of everything that happened in Papi’s at-bat over and over and over…and it is obvious to anyone with eyes that Papi DID start to run to first base.  Gregg was so aggressive in that moment that the umpire came out from behind the plate and ejected him WHILE Papi was running to first base.  And, yes, Mr. Gregg.  he had a problem with it because you didn’t know what the hell you were talking about and after being thrown at three times, he decided to let you know what a horse’s ass you are.  The one who might want to check their game is you, boyo.

And let’s get to Nick.  I’m one of the few who is actually okay with players following some unwritten rules but there is one that I will never, ever understand and that is the “once you have a big lead you need to stop trying to win” rule.  Who gets to decide what the appropriate lead is before you have to stop trying, the losing team?  (For a current example of why this is a ridiculous “rule”, Wednesday night the Cincinnati Reds were up 8-0 in the fifth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals after having scored five runs in the first.  They ended up winning the game 9-8 in THIRTEEN innings because the Cards had a five-run seventh inning and then scored the tying run in the bottom of the ninth.  Had the Reds deferred to unwritten rules about big leads, would they have ended up losing the game?  I think it is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny that Nick Markakis thinks Papi will look back on this and think that not running to first base (when he actually DID run to first base) was a screw-up on Papi’s part.  The “screw-up” was Papi going after Gregg after Gregg got mouthy and was booted from the game.  And then, I only think it was a screw-up because it’s going to get him a suspension.  I have no problem in theory with David Ortiz telling Kevin Gregg that he isn’t going to take  his piddly shit. (And for the record, Nick Markakis, bush league is trying to  hit a player solely for the reason that his team is beating you.  Here endeth the lesson.)

I get that with 2004 and 2007 in their pockets it’s fun for other teams to target the Red Sox, but these teams should pick their battles. They didn’t show anyone that they won’t take anyone’s crap on Friday…they are the ones who STARTED it, so it doesn’t work that way.  Gregg (and, really, Markakis too) comes across as a whiny jerk who can’t deal with being on a bad team and getting beaten by a good team.  Josh Beckett might have had the best comment on the night:

“We’re a good hitting team. You can’t just be hitting our guys because we’re scoring a lot of runs. That’s how the game is played. Maybe they saw something different. Maybe they saw something they didn’t like or whatever. But if it’s just because we scored eight runs in the first inning and they start throwing at our guys, it’s going to be a long year.”

(Expletives edited out for gentle eyes!)

Josh nails it.  If you want to get pissy because your team is getting beat the best revenge is to actually beat some teams.  Orioles will get their chance tonight with John Lackey on the mound.  There are so many scenarios that could come to be…if Lackey pitches well tonight (hey, it could happen!) do the Orioles get more frustrated by losing to a struggling pitcher?  Does Lackey just decide that between the All Star break and his struggles that he could use some time off and get aggressive against the O’s from the beginning in retaliation for Gregg’s post-game comments?  Do both teams just decide to forget it and focus on just winning the game?

One other note about Papi swinging on a 3-0 count.  Let’s review here what happened:  Three fastballs coming at him.  So obvious that Gregg is trying to hit Oritz that the benches get warned even though he hasn’t been hit.  What would anyone do with that next pitch?  Wait to see where it’s headed or just swing and get it over with?  If you have a brain, you swing to try and ensure you don’t get hit.  I genuinely don’t want to see anyone hurt (nor any other Red Sox players suspended) but all the Orioles did with their jawing after the game was most likely ensure there will be many bad feelings on the field for tonight’s game.

Never has it been more enticing to tune into a Baltimore Orioles game.  Well done, Kevin Gregg.

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